


The Little Peridot That Could

by EliseLoughlin



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Maybe fan-fusions, Minor Amedot, Post-Apocalypse kind of, Rebel AU, Rebel Crystal Gems, Rebels, Story gets longer, Verrry minor, Very short first chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-03-05
Packaged: 2018-05-21 09:57:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6047344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EliseLoughlin/pseuds/EliseLoughlin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the near future exists an Earth that had long since deteriorated into a barren wasteland thanks to the Gem War. The Diamond Authority was just waiting for a certain Quartz to finally activate the Cluster. However, what will happen to their plans now that a simple Peridot that was never meant to be gets in the way? What side will she choose? Her Homeworld or Earth? Minor Amedot</p><p>Or an au where homeworld wipes out nearly all life on earth with only Beach City left so they resort to underground hiding. Stuff happens, including serious Steven( not for long), slight Amedot, and cool powers are granted to Rose pre-series that completely changes everything.<br/>(Also, if anyone wants, I would absolutely love some fanart maybe for the story. It would be greatly appreciated if you like it that much!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Prologue

"Go, go, go!" She heard someone scream out as waves upon waves of corrupted gems came at full force towards the small group of fighters. Clashing swords and pops of guns rang out in her ears along with screeching noises and the sound of the tearing of skin, and soon she truly believed she was going to go deaf. Usually, she would be fighting with them, but her dull, cracked gem and the scene before her stopped her from summoning anything of use.

"Here it is," she murmured to herself as she gazed almost longingly in front of her. Just a few meters away from her was the largest mass of rippling gem energy surrounded by shot up spikes of earth she had ever had the luck of seeing.

"The Cluster," she whispered. Her green eyes hardened and she pressed a switch that automatically replaced her broken visor. Her fists clenched and she marched forward, past the raging crowds of bloodshed and inhuman screeches.

This is it. This is what I was made for. It is time to fulfill my duty.

As she walked forward, she blocked out everything and everyone around her. She tried to calm her pounding heart and burning throat. She tried to concentrate on the calm, dull sounds around her, and the hauntingly beautiful mass just ahead. The mass that took her friend.

However, someone's far off scream pierced into her mind.

"Peridot!" The scream was agonizing and just emanated pure repressed anguish.

She sighed and ignored the voice, no matter how hard it seemed to be. She could no longer bear to look at the person who carried the voice.

She couldn't help but chuckle slightly as she thought back to before this whole mess. Before the Cluster, before the activation, before the war and raids, before all of it. She remembered when she first got to what she assumed was a lost planet.

She was wrong.

~~~

Smoke was everywhere. The sky was engulfed in nothing but darkness, the scorching flames licking at the night air doing little to help. The rubble of what appeared to be a ship sat destroyed and in damage beyond repair, many wires snapping viciously with sparks flying and flames bursting out of the hunks of metal. The ship also aided in effectively burning all of the surrounding plains to ash. No one would survive.

Suddenly, however, if one listened closely, a small, quiet groan was heard. Among the burning parts, a small, lime green hand stuck out of the rubble. It twitched slightly, then stopped. Then it twitched again. Then, as if by some unseen force, the hand started to move desperately and erratically as it scraped against the metal. Eventually the hand managed to pry the piece away and the hand retreated further inside the disaster.

Again, another groan was heard, clearly feminine. The hand appeared again, and slowly but surely dragged the rest of the body out. Inch by inch it traveled and the hand gripped the dirt below tightly and the nails were dug deeply in. It clenched more and eventually, the body was pulled out from the wreckage.

The figure coughed and panted as it, or she, layed on the ground, face down. It seemed like forever before she groaned in pain as she struggled to sit up. It took several tries, and her shaking arm and whole body didn't help. Her whole outfit, or uniform, was torn and burnt all over, and her body was covered in cuts and She growled in frustration and bit her lip as she finally managed to sit up. Her whole body was aching, and she could already feel herself going again. She could already see the faint glow surrounding her body and tried to will it away, but it was too strong.

She breathed as she looked around her surroundings. Her ears were ringing a high pitch still, and her vision was blurry as her visor was cracked and chipping off. She could barely see anything past the pitch black midnight sky and the burned grass in all directions.

She really was doomed, wasn't she?

Then, in the distance, she heard yelling, and footsteps. She could barely make out three figures running towards her, but nothing else. Before she lost consciousness, she let out a small smile and chuckled.

"I'm such a clod," she whispered and with that was lost once again in the calm clutches of the subconscious. Everything went dark.


	2. You're Going to Harvest Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peri wakes up and meets some interesting gems.

She couldn't see anything. Nothing was around her, and all she could feel was a slight tingling sensation, but she was mostly still numb. She wanted to groan, but nothing would come out.

What happened? Where am I?

Slowly, the terrifying realization that she was alone in the dark without any idea where she was or how she got there sunk in. Then she felt the dull throb of her head, and her heart starting to pound against her ribcage.

Did I… Did I poof?

The odd sensation of poofing was rare to her, considering her lack of actual battle experience, but it had happened before. How long was she out? Realizing she couldn't just wait around, she forced herself to try and open her eyes, to become conscious again. She heard faint voices in the distance, but it was terribly muffled.

She groaned this time in fear and pain as she struggled to bring herself back, to reform. She felt as if she could barely breathe, trying this hard, but eventually the effort seemed to pay off as she felt a familiar feeling of weightlessness and noticed a faint white glow around her peripheral vision. She felt the energy come back to her, and had to close her eyes against the sudden onslaught of light.

Everything went so quickly, but once she felt her physical self come back, along with the cool air around her, time seemed to slow down. She breathed in relief and slowly opened her eyes, cracking them open before fully revealing them. Her vision was blurry, but it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. She looked at her body and was pleased to see the lack of injuries. Same light green skin, diamond uniform with the black V-neck and yellow diamond in the middle of her torso, same green leggings and yellow toes with a similarly colored diamond design on each knee. She clenched her fists a couple of times and wriggled her toes before she was satisfied.

Then she froze. The voices she heard- they stopped.

Slowly and cautiously, she raised her head, eyes trailing along every detail of the ground. It was dark still, and the ground looked to be made of solid rock. Was this the right place?

Before she could ponder her surroundings more, her eyes caught on something that made her breath catch in her throat and her heart stop.

People. Four, to be exact. A tall lady with a pearl gem on her forehead, an even taller woman with vision enhancers and quite large hair, a short purple gem with long pale hair, and a slightly taller male with curly hair.

Three of them immediately summoned weapons.

"Eep," she squeaked out. She jumped off of what appeared to be a metal table and onto the hard ground below. Getting onto all fours, she ran as fast as she could away from the impending danger. However, the room she was in was foreign and she had no idea where to go. Her head whipped around side to side as she frantically looked for the exit. Her wide eyes caught on a tunnel-like opening against the far side of the wall, and she immediately made a run for it.

Just when she thought she would escape, the large figure of the woman from before was in front of her, huge metal-like gloves covering her hands.

"Aaahhh!" She exclaimed and she tried to turn around, but found she was cornered. The woman grabbed her from behind with her gloves and held the green girl up. She was kicking and scratching and shouting, but nothing seemed to faze her foe.

"Let me go! I demand you release me!" She shrieked, but was only squeezed more.

"No," the woman said." You need to tell us who you are."

"Never!" The smaller yelled.

"Alright then. I'll guess we'll poof you again," she replied and started to squeeze to the point the other couldn't breathe.

"Wait!" She cried out as her nails scraped against the gloves," stop! Don't do it!"

"Well, who are you?" The other lady, asked as she pointed her light baby blue spear at her.

"W-who are you?!" The struggling one questioned.

"We asked you first!" The one with the vision enhancers said. More squeezing.

"Hey, maybe we should just bubble her. Sure would be funny to see her struggle to escape," the shorter girl suggested, a sly smirk on her face as she lazily held her purple and black whip at her side.

"No! Wait!" She cried. The green girl shut her eyes and ground her teeth in frustration. She really had no choice, did she?

"P-Peridot!" She shouted."My name is Peridot!" Instantly, the grip loosened and she was put on the ground, but her arm was still held tightly. The smaller gem only winced and breathed hard as her overworked mind struggled to unscramble itself.

"Well, to be technical, it's Peridot Facet 2F5L Cut 5XG," she quickly spat out.

"Peridot," the one holding her spoke.

"What are you doing here?" The pale one asked for her.

"I-I don't know!" A painful squeeze to her arm again."I swear!"

"Who sent you?" The one with the glasses asked again.

"Really! M-my ship crashed!" She squeaked out. Suddenly, the squeezing stopped and her arm was let go.

"Amethyst." At hearing her name, the shorter purple gem grinned as she slung the whips at the green girl and they quickly wrapped around her and restrained her tightly.

"No! L-let me go!" She yelled as she struggled even more against the restraints.

"Not until you tell us who sent you and why," the tallest said flatly as she crossed her arms. The group started walking, the Amethyst dragging the very unwilling Peridot.

"I demand you release me!" She growled out with tightly shut eyes. Her heart was pounding almost painfully as her legs practically turned to jello.

"Nope," came the calm reply.

No amount of her struggling could slow them down, but her groaning and moaning of frustration did succeed in furthering their own discontent. The large spacious room was otherwise quiet and dark other than the green gem's grumbling.

Eventually, Peridot stopped her groaning and decided to look around the space. Nothing but dark brownish red dirt and rock towering all around them. Piles of junk such as tables, blankets, clothes, and other useless things were scattered throughout the huge space.

She growled."Disgusting filth."

The Amethyst sharply turned around and narrowed her eyes at her."What?"

"Nothing!" The other darted her eyes back to the ground.

The tall pale one sighed and looked at the still silent boy who had his hands in his pockets and eyes set on the ground. "Steven, could you go and calm the rest down? We'll take care of things here."

The boy looked up at her and nodded."Sure." With that, he walked away from the group, but not without giving Peridot a weary and suspicious look. He ran away from the group and quickly walked through the same tunnel Peridot had tried escaping through. She frowned. She had just noticed the quiet boy was there. Interesting.

Before she could continue staring at the tunnel of freedom, her body was jerked forward toward the same table she remembered she had jumped from. A faint glow caught her eye and she slowly tilted her head up, instantly regretting the action. Her stomach churned and her heart stopped. Her eyes dilated as she stared at the terrifying sight above her. So many gems. So many gems in red bubbles hovered above them.

"Oh, my stars," she mumbled," you're going to harvest me?" Her voice quavered in barely contained fear as she held her hands to her face. How did she not notice?!

"We aren't going to harvest you," the thin gem said.

"Or are we?" The Amethyst gave a sly smirk which only scared the poor green gem more.

"Amethyst!" The pale one replied in a harsh tone.

"Come on, Pearl, can't we scare her just a little bit at least?"

"No! Garnet, what do we do?" She huffed and asked the tallest gem. She only shifted her glasses with her usual poker face.

"For now, we wait. Keep her in here, bubble her if we have to-"

"-No!" Peridot cut her off as she fought even more against her bindings."Don't you dare bubble me!"

Garnet looked at her."Sorry, but we can't exactly do that. Once you decide to talk, we'll consider getting you out."

"Just let me go! I don't know anything!" Peridot cried out.

"Like we'd believe you! You didn't exactly come here on a crashed ship yelling 'I come in peace'!" Amethyst exclaimed as she waved her arms exaggeratedly.

"We'll see about you not knowing anything. If I were you, I'd really consider your story,"Garnet said as she calmly walked over to the smallest gem. She nodded towards Amethyst who immediately pouted slightly as she withdrew her whip, but still held it in her hands just in case.

Garnet raised her fists and breathed before she quickly brought them down and formed a large pink bubble surrounding Peridot before she could try anything. She growled and kicked and punched at the bubble, but none of her light attacks even fazed it.

"Please! You aren't going to get any information from me, you clods!" Peridot pursed her lips and tried to look threatening, but it only managed to make Amethyst snort and Pearl roll her eyes.

"Right. We'll come back to check on you. Just decide if you want to stay in there or not," she said and crossed her arms. She quickly spun around and stalked off from the group. Amethyst flipped her hair behind her shoulder as she followed, and Garnet only spared another blank look at her before she left as well.

Then, they were gone. Back through that dark tunnel. What was passed it? Where was she?

Peridot frowned.

What does she do now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was this chapter? I know it's short and nothing much really happened, but I want to try taking things a bit slow. Everything about why certain characters act the way they do will be explained in due time. Please, tell me what you think! And don't worry, chapters will probably end up getting longer. I just thought this was a good place to end it. Thanks! :)


	3. Trapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot tries to escape, because she's such a smart gem.

"Are you suuuuuure you don't want to tell us anything?" Amethyst grinned at the still bubbled Peridot as she laid on her stomach, head resting on her hand. Her legs swayed nonchalantly as she let her lips quirk up slightly.

Peridot only groaned and narrowed her eyes."Yes, I am positive," she growled out. She sat in the bubble with her legs pulled up to her chest, facing the other gem.

"Come on, it's not too hard!" Amethyst stuck her tongue out and only made Peridot huff in annoyance.

"Please, I am fully aware of the lack of effort it would take to relay information to the likes of you, though I am curious on if your puny learning cerebrum would be able to even process it…" She trailed off and relished the fuming look shot at her from the tall one, the Pearl.

"Oh, I assure you, we would very much understand it. If our learning cerebrums were as dull as you thought, than we wouldn't have been able to trap you so easily," she explained and crossed her thin arms. Peridot frowned, but it was quickly replaced by a smug smirk.

"Ha! Trap? As if I would have been foolish enough to be trapped by you! Though tell me, who exactly are you? Surely you must be somewhat more skilled than most of the majority of the species that used to inhabit this planet."

The three gems visibly stiffened. Garnet straightened up from her relaxed position against a pile of clothing and walked over.

"The people of this planet are still very much alive. You don't need to know who we are. I'm sure you'll figure it out on your own," she said as monotonous as possible. This reply urked Peridot very much.

"What? Are you scared that I'll relay information on you to my diamond-" she stopped and her eyes widened. She quickly covered her mouth, but it was too late.

"Wait, you personally know a diamond?" Pearl asked as she stepped back slightly. Amethyst looked even more interested."Cool," was all she said.

"No, no! Not at all! I have nothing to do with the diamond authority!" She spat out as quickly as possible, but she could tell they didn't believe her.

"Well, now she's really important," Garnet said as she crossed her arms and looked to her teammates who nervously looked back.

Pearl coughed,"so, what now?" She was visibly bothered by the fact the smaller gem was actually of some real importance, but she had to wonder what course of action they would take about it.

Garnet shrugged."I'm sure Peridot here will come around eventually," she said, and the other two nodded. Peridot, however, waved her hands frantically with wide eyes as she struggled to force her dry mouth to say something.

"Wait, you have the wrong idea! I don't know anything still! So, I may know a diamond, but it means nothing about what they planned to do with this ball of dirt!" She exclaimed in a panicked manner. They only stared at her with bored expressions.

"Yeah, sure," Amethyst drawled on slowly as she brought herself to a standing position. She stretched her arms out as if she had just woken from a nap."Just don't expect to leave that bubble anytime soon."

With that, they all started to walk away from the puzzled gem."Wait!" She called out, and earned the attention of the three.

"What if I don't tell you anything?" She had to ask.

Amethyst grinned which earned an exasperated look from Pearl."Easy," she said,"we lock you here forever." She walked away. The green gem gave a confused look to the Garnet, who shrugged.

"Your choice," and left the chamber.

Peridot groaned. This was going to be a long, long process.

…

"I'm trapped. I'm trapped and never going to escape. I'm going to stay stuck here in this bubble and no one will be able to rescue me. I'm going to stay here for all of eternity. Not good, not good, not good-" Peridot chanted as she she held her head in her hands and buried herself in her knees.

The gems just watched her display, this time with the odd silent boy from before.

The Amethyst crossed her arms behind her head and leaned on one leg."Uh, is she gonna be ok?" She asked.

Pearl put a hand to her chin in thought."Honestly, while it is a bit amusing, it does worry me a bit." She sighed and looked to the poker faced gem next to her,"what do you think, Garnet?"

She hummed,"I don't know."

Peridot twitched madly and felt an odd form of liquid coming to her eyes and groaned more.

Amethyst moaned,"it's only been three days and she's acting like it's been a century." She looked at the slightly taller boy next to her."Hey Steven, wanna try and get her to talk?" The boy only shrugged in response with a slightly troubled look on his young face. He adjusted the red bandana around his forehead with bold black letters 'CG' across it.

"I'm not sure if I'd do very good," he mumbled and looked back to the ground. The gems only sighed at his response, but Amethyst quickly perked up again and nudged him in the arm.

"Come on, try it! It's actually pretty fun to annoy her!" Amethyst joked.

The Steven looked at the bubbled gem and frowned. Slowly, he walked over to her and kneeled. He brought his chubby hand up and poked the bubble. She peered up at him with glistening eyes.

"Um, hi," he said awkwardly. Peridot narrowed her eyes and balled her fists. Show no weakness.

"What is it? Have you come to patronize me as well?" She asked, but managed to maintain a calm composure.

"No, no!" He said with wide brown eyes. He scratched the back of his curly thick tufts of hair as he pondered what to say to the alien gem."Listen, we need to know why you're here. If you don't tell us, then we won't even consider letting you go. Is that what you want?" He asked with a slightly stern voice. Peridot blinked, obviously not expecting that response.

"Why would I even consider revealing anything to my enemy?" She huffed.

"If you want to stay bubbled for all of eternity, then that's your choice. All we're doing is trying to at least get you to say something." He said. Peridot turned away with her eyes closed.

"I might consider saying something if you let me out," she spoke coolly. She opened one eye to examine the boy and was surprised to see a thoughtful look on his face. He looked back at Garnet.

"Garnet, what do you think?" He asked. The Garnet adjusted her glasses.

"Releasing her could go two ways. She's more likely to kick you in the nuts and run though," she said, and Peridot gulped. The Steven looked back at her and paused.

"...I think it would be worth a shot." Peridot perked up, but he held his hand up to silence her.

" Listen," he said," if we let you out, you have to tell us something you know, or else you're never coming out again, got it?" He warned and Peridot scoffed.

"Please, I'm sure I could understand what you mean. Just release me and I'll share what knowledge I do possess to you."

Steven stood up and motioned for Garnet to come. She nodded and walked forward, her movements being followed by a panicking Pearl and a neutral Amethyst.

"Garnet, Steven, are you sure about this? Why should we just let her out?" Pearl asked as she bit her lip roughly with her pale hands clasped. Garnet looked at her and gave her a thumbs up before she turned back.

She reached her hand out and gently pushed on the bubble before it popped, releasing the small green gem to the hard earth below. She groaned as she rubbed her head, before she felt a larger shadow loom over her. She raised her head and squeaked when she saw the Steven standing above her with his hands on his hips.

"So, what do you know?" He got straight to the point. Peridot thought for a moment, before she growled. She quickly kneeled and kicked Steven right in his 'special place' and made a mad dash for the tunnel away from them. The other gems only gasped as Steven groaned in pain as he was hunched over on the ground.

Pearl looked to him and asked,"Steven, are you alright?" Steven waved a hand at her with a bit of sweat on his face."I-I'm fine, just follow her!" They nodded and quickly followed Peridot, who was at that moment running on all fours.

They summoned their weapons as they were running after the terrified gem. Pearl aimed and threw her spear at her enemy, who only squealed in fear when it landed right by her. Amethyst growled as she snapped her whip towards her, but surprisingly, she managed to dodge and keep a clean path to the tunnel. It was just a few meters away. Garnet frowned and grunted as she slammed her fists on the ground and created a shockwave that knocked over Peridot.

She let out an 'ow!' as she fell flat on her face, but otherwise picked herself up quickly and kept running. The gems groaned as they sprinted after her, but it was too late. Peridot had managed to get to the tunnel and throw her short arms up to the handle of a large door and shove it open. She huffed and puffed as she got ready to run again.

Garnet clenched her teeth and slammed her fists against the ground one more time muttering," oh, no you don't!"

The shockwave was bigger this time and managed to make Peridot fall again and skid over the floor and into the other space.

Peridot groaned and slowly sat up. It took a moment to get her bearings, but when she did she jumped right up with a victorious grin.

"Ha!" She laughed and raised her hands."Freedom is mine!" She hollered. A cough made her stop. She froze and slowly, with her arms still held up, turned around with wide eyes.

Humans. Humans all around her, all frozen just like she.

The other gems caught up while breathing deeply, along with a panting Steven. Peridot was now visibly shaking as she stared at the wide eyes that were all narrowed onto her small form.

"Oh my stars…" She mumbled."There are more?" She whipped her head to the group that was chasing her and pointed at them.

"Just who are you?!" She shouted in an uneasy and shaken voice. They surrounded her with their weapons ready. The Pearl pointed her spear at her with a hand raised in defiance.

"We are the Crystal Gems! We're still alive and we're still the guardians of this planet and all it's living creatures!" Peridot sat, dumbfounded.

"The Crystal Gems?" She asked in clear confusion. Then, her eyes widened and she trembled even more.

"You are the Crystal Gems? How?! I thought you were eradicated from this planet years ago!"

Steven got into a battle stance."Like you thought the humans were?"

"This-this doesn't make any sense! What are you still doing here? How did you survive? The Red Eye didn't report the presence of any life on this planet!"

"That's because we destroyed it!" Pearl replied. Peridot was at a loss of words for once.

"Now, tell us what you know! What diamond do you pledge under?" Pearl questioned as sternly as possible.

"N-no! I'm telling you, I really don't know anything!" Peridot cried out as she withered under their gazes. She saw the other humans slowly approaching the group, most with angered expressions.

"Steven!" A voice called out, and made Peridot jump slightly. She quickly saw a human girl with dark skin in a blue and red tunic run up to the group. She grabbed onto Steven's shoulder and peered curiously at the alien."Steven, is that the gem you found on the outside?"

Steven put an arm in front of her and eyed Peridot wearily."Not now Connie, you need to stay back." Peridot was slightly pleased at the fact that the Steven looked at her as a threat.

Garnet looked at her."Well, if you still refuse to say anything, I guess it's back to the bubble for you."

Peridot jumped back saying,"no, no, no, no, no! Please don't put me back into your bubble prison!" Her pleas were ignored as she was once again put into a deep magenta bubble. It took barely a second before she felt weightless and once again found herself in the same chamber she woke in from before. Her green eyes darted around and landed on the tunnel.

Amethyst was poking her head out from the door and stuck her tongue out at the enemy gem.

"See ya later, nerd!"

With that, she was once again put in darkness as the door was closed.

And silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, chapter two! How was it? I hope it was decent! I know Steven is weird in this, but more of his personality will be explained in later chapters. Also, I will take requests on ideas of how Peri can potentially 'bond' with the gems and people! Thanks, and please leave a comment! :)


	4. Unbubbled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally something happens and the gems are on a mission it seems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter somewhat makes up for the shortness with something interesting happening. And don't worry, Peridot referring to the gems as 'the Amethyst' or 'the Pearl' will stop eventually, as well as her odd body part lingo. Just so you know, here is a key:
> 
> *Sound receptors: Ears
> 
> *Connector Stumps: Toes
> 
> *Audio Maker: Mouth
> 
> *Lower Limb Connectors: Knees
> 
> I hope that's all of them. I hope it's not annoying or anything to write like this for you guys! Trust me, it will eventually stop, I just wanted a new kind of perspective on how Peridot thinks without being directly in her point of view. Anyways, I hope you guys like it! Thanks, and please leave a comment! :)

All the gems. All of the poor, bubbled gems. Every single one was floating above her, each respective color contrasting with the magenta glow of the bubbles they presided in. They all just sat there, lifeless. As if they were mocking her. Every day for the rest of her miserable life would she have to sit and stare at the 'space rocks' as the Amethyst had put it.

"Hey, you're kind of creeping me out. Quit staring at the ceiling, girl." Speaking of…

Peridot snapped out of her deep state of- analyzing, mind you- and looked at the Amethyst in front of her. It took all she had to not growl at the nonchalant look the purple gem had, with a hand on one hip as she leaned on her leg. She wore a slightly confused but smug smirk.

"These imprisoned gems are all I have to look at at the moment. What with being stuck in your bubble prison, there really isn't much to look at, other than the horrendous piles of no doubt useless things around me," Peridot replied with barely contained venom in her high-pitched voice.

Amethyst shrugged." Whatevs. It was just getting weird, that's all. Excuse me for worrying," she held her hands up in a defensive gesture.

Peridot frowned and looked back up, waiting for the other gem to just leave. It was just them, and while Peridot did admit- albeit it to herself- that she was starting to get a bit lonely, she would much rather be more comfortable without the annoying presence of the other gem.

However, her sanity was not granted even a moment of peace from her.

"So, uh, are you gonna tell us something soon?"

"No," Peridot growled.

"You really want to stay in that bubble, don't you?"

"I absolutely detest this bubble," Peridot said. Amethyst laughed.

"Woah, you really like to use nerd words, don't you?" Peridot ignored her.

It was silent after that, and the only thing that the green gem could hear was the loud mumbling of voices outside of this bubble, storage, chamber-thing, and the awkward scuffling of the Amethyst's white boots along the ground. She could say that the sound was incredibly annoying.

"Well, come on," the purple gem spoke up." You have so say something to me. If you don't, then Pearl'll give me an earful!" The Amethyst groaned.

Peridot looked at her quizzically." An earful of what? Wait… what's an ear?"

Amethyst just stared at her.

Peridot stared back.

"You can't be serious." Amethyst said.

Peridot pouted." I am terribly serious."

"I'm out," she said and turned around to the door. She raised her hand as a backwards wave and wordlessly walked away. Peridot suddenly felt an odd course of… anger? No… Frustration? Perhaps. Either way, she did not want to stay in this cursed bubble any longer.

"You know," Peridot spoke, and Amethyst stopped." I really don't know anything. I have no knowledge of what they planned for this planet. Me coming here was just…" she trailed off. Amethyst slowly turned around.

"Just what?" She asked.

Peridot shook her head and frowned at her." Nothing. The fact is that you will gain no knowledge from me about the authority. I have nothing to do with it. I am of no use to you." Even she knew that was a lie. Any enemy is a useful enemy. Whatever information, whatever tools, whatever anything could be used. She just hoped that the Amethyst wouldn't see that.

The Amethyst just shrugged and turned around and left without another word.

The next time she sees her is when she is with the other two gems and the odd human again. They appear to be discussing something important with their hushed whispers and occasional glances in her direction. She could barely make out the words:

"-can't trust… diamond… homeworld…-" Then, her *sound receptors picked up the word shatter and her breathing stopped. Her eyes widened and she jumped up to listen more, but the conversation seemed to have changed.

She saw the shorter quiet one with a troubled expression as he unconsciously fiddled with the belt holster at his side. He was looking at Pearl who wore a thoughtful expression before she started speaking again. Amethyst said something and started laughing, a sound that made Peridot cringe, before she was quickly hushed by the Pearl. The Garnet crossed her arms and looked in Peridot's direction, but the young gem couldn't tell if she was looking at her directly or not. Swallowing thickly, she forced a tense smile to her face and weakly waved. No reply.

Then she heard the word kindergarten. She knows that word all too well.

"Kindergarten?" She spoke up wearily. The group froze and turned to her as if just noticing the bubbled gem just a few meters away from them.

"W-well, I can, uh, help." Her words were shaky and unsure as she struggled to find her words. The intense stares and the fear of that word from before made her on edge.

"I-I mean, if you're going there, I know how the kindergarten works. I can help somehow! You won't find any information there without me! I would have been a certified kindergartener, after all!" The farther she got, the more confident she sounded. She let her voice pitch a little bit higher in pride at the end as she stuck out her chest and pointed to herself with vision spheres closed.

The gems just stared at her before they turned to Garnet. The Pearl stood on her *connecter stumps to whisper to the largest gem all the while sparing quick glances in Peridot's direction. Peridot only huffed in annoyance at their hesitation while they all started to whisper to each other.

Eventually, the group broke apart with the Garnet shrugging nonchalantly while the Amethyst only snickered and slapped the Pearl on the hip. Before she could scold the other gem, the Garnet and the human walked up to her. Peridot sat up expectantly.

"You know how to get around the kindergarten? Or what's in there?" The human asked as he crouched to her level. Peridot simply stared at him and smirked.

"Of course I do! I am a Peridot after all!"

They looked at each other for a moment before the Garnet spoke.

"Why would you want to help us?" She asked carefully.

Peridot scoffed."Please! I don't really want to help you. I just simply want to get out of this bubble dungeon! Though I admit, I will aid you in whatever endeavor you are trying to achieve as it is all probably useless anyways." She looked away with a small embarrassed blush on her face with her vision spheres closed. As if she would look at those filthy beings now.

A moment of silence passed and she began to wonder if they would decline or had already just simply left. The last thought made her slowly crack open her lids, but just as she did she fell to the cold hard earth beneath her.

Peridot let out a groan as she fell in an uncomfortable position on her arm and her cheek had badly grazed the ground. She couldn't dwell on it however, as she was forcefully pulled up to stand.

"W-what are you-"

Click.

She blinked and looked down at herself. The Garnet had snapped some kind of… bodily restraint around her chest with the crudest piece of earthly material attached to it. The Garnet was holding onto the end of it with a satisfied smile.

"G-get this off of me! You can't do this!" Peridot struggled to get the odd contraption off of her, but she had no effect on it.

"Sorry, but that leash is here to stay," The Pearl replied with a slight scowl. The Amethyst laughed loudly and Peridot flinched.

"How does it feel to be a little… tied up? HAHAHAHA!" The Amethyst smacked her leg as she laughed obnoxiously. Peridot barely restrained a glare of annoyance at the purple gem. These odd, backwards gems were really starting to get annoying. 

Before the green gem could say something she would regret, she felt a harsh tug and was yanked forward. She was being dragged by the 'leash' and Peridot couldn't help but feel like it was an insult. Maybe it was the way the Amethyst was laughing or the smug look from the Pearl that made her whole being boil.

They took her through the large bubble/storage room and came upon the large doors she remembered too well from the other cycle. How long has she been on this miserable planet, anyways? Peridot gulped slightly as the human pulled open the doors and led the unwilling technician through.

Peridot's uncomfort only doubled when she saw what was through the door. It seemed like time slowed down and her breathing stopped. Her steps faltered, but she was still pulled along. She was tempted to just make them put her back in the bubble, but her *audio maker was dry and no sound would come out.

They walked into the even larger space, but she wouldn't dare look around as she felt the numerous stares of humans on her small form. She just stared at her gravity connectors and stayed quiet as they kept walking. She briefly wondered how they were supposed to get to the kindergarten, but figured a warp would be somewhere.

She tried to ignore the whispers, but she couldn't help but notice the brief words of anger or suspicion sent her way. She felt her frustration spike and she briefly lifted her head to glare at the annoying humans. Some of them only huffed indignantly and turned away and others just stared right back with just as much confidence.

An odd reaction, Peridot noted.

She would have said something, but a sharp tug from the Garnet stopped her. She pouted. The group walked painfully slow for the homeworld gem and all she wanted to do was wipe the smug look from the Pearl's face all the while.

She was about to ask where they were actually headed, but stopped herself when her small foot came into contact with a blue warp pad. The blue crystal-like foundation was cool and smooth, and made Peridot feel a small rush of anxiousness when she felt it under her. She walked up the small steps and stood on the top.

"Alright, hands and feet in the warp pad at all times," the Garnet warned with a bit of a smile.

"Wait, what are-" Peridot was cut off by the bright glow that surrounded the pad and cut them off from the nervous glances of the other humans. She'd have to take a closer look at the previous space some other time.

Amethyst stood grinning as she twirled around the small teleporting space and the human and other two gems just stood staring at her. Peridot looked at the human again, this time taking in his appearance more. He had curly dark brown hair, and his bangs, if any, were hidden behind a red headband and black letters of 'CG'. He had a red appearance modifier across his chest and black along the limbs above his gravity connectors, which were in black padded sandals. A red strip was across his *lower limb connectors.

An odd arrangement of modifiers. Peridot frowned as the warp cut off before she could do any further inspecting. She looked around and saw nothing but dark, grey skies and clouds. Rocky ledges and hills surrounded them, leaving no appealing finish to the land. It was as if the atmosphere suddenly tensed up and the small gem was almost afraid to look at the stoic and serious faces of her captors. Peridot felt herself shiver.

The group was silent as they stepped off the warp. The Garnet turned to Peridot.

"We need to take care of the corrupted gems here. There's too many, and we need to find a way to finish this. How do we stop it?" She got straight to the point.

Peridot smirked in amusement."What? Stop it? Ha!" Peridot laughed." You can't stop it! The gems are here to stay. The closest thing to finding a way to control it however would be in the prime control room."

The Pearl raised a brow." And how do we get there?"

Peridot turned to look at the group.

"How should I know?"


	5. Exploring the Kindergarten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot and the gems get to look for the prime control room. What could possibly go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, new chapter! I hope it's alright! Now things start getting a bit more interesting. Kind of. Hehe.
> 
> *Touch sensors- hands
> 
> Remember to leave a comment! Thanks! :)

"How should I know?"

The gems just stood there, staring at her in absolute surprise. The Pearl blinked rapidly and walked over to the green with her *touch sensors out in a questioning manner.

"E-excuse me? What do you mean how?" Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke. "You have to know! You told us you know everything about the kindergarten!"

Peridot slouched slightly and crossed her arms.

"I do. But I don't know where it would be on this planet!"

The Steven coughed for a moment and shook his head. He looked around for a moment before he joined the conversation.

"Look, we have to find this control room thing. We need to hurry too, so please, just try." His vision spheres had obvious bags under them now, and Peridot ignored the small, odd part of her that almost felt sorry for the alien being.

"I said I will help you, but I need an idea of where we are." Peridot looked around at the jagged cliffs. An odd mist-like dust shrouded around them and she was grateful to have her visor at that moment. All she saw was nothing but the same brown hunks of rock she was so unfortunately surrounded by. Suddenly, an idea struck her. Her lids widened and she let out a small gasp as she sharply turned to the group, who all jumped in surprise.

"I know! You're all gems, aren't you?" She coughed, "well, most of you. I don't know what you are, exactly. You don't appear to be a familiar gem…" She trailed off as she eyed the odd human-looking being in front of her. He opened his mouth to reply before the Pearl cut him off.

"Yes, we're gems. What does it have to do with this? As Steven said before, we don't have much time. We need to find this control room, find what we need, stop the mutants, and get back to the colony before-"

"-I understand," Peridot cut her annoying rambling off. She raised a brow. If she was going to do this often, then Peridot didn't know how much more she would be able to take. She unconsciously fiddled with the 'leash' around her chest.

"I know the chances are highly unlikely, but were any of you created on this planet?"

The group grew silent. The Pearl's vision spheres leapt wildly between Peridot, the Amethyst, the Garnet, and back to Peridot. The Amethyst stepped up to the green gem with her arms crossed. She seemed to be much intently focused on the round little red pebbles by her gravity connectors. The dust was caught in her hair, and Peridot resisted the urge to shake away the annoying little specs.

"I was." The purple gem looked up at Peridot and grinned, her previous demeanor completely vanished. "Whaddya want me to do?"

"Well, would you happen to have retained the knowledge of where exactly the coordinates of your previous emergence could be traced back to?"

The gem just blinked before her full lips spread into a smirk.

"Is that a way of asking if I remember what hole I came from? Sure do!" She flipped her hair and started walking. Peridot blinked before she scrambled to catch up to the gem. The rest followed without much complaint, but Peridot couldn't help but feel only more questions welling up in her.

The Pearl looked at Peridot and put a touch sensor to her hair as she scratched her head. "W-well, what do you plan to do with Amethyst's, uh, hole?" She stumbled.

Peridot eyed the Pearl with little more than annoyance and distaste. "I will use her hatch site as a reference point of where the prime control room would be, in simple terms." She added the last part with a her eyes closed in smug enjoyment. Sadly, the desired reaction was not achieved.

"Well, I can assure you, you may know your way around here, but we certainly know how to get around the colony you were so lost in." The Pearl couldn't repress the very small hint of a smirk on her pale lips. Peridot flinched and growled, fists balled. The green gem seemed to have found a sudden interest in the purple gem who had slowed down slightly and effectively ended the conversation.

The group kept walking, and the silence seemed to have been making the Amethyst increasingly uninterested, Peridot noted. Suddenly, the other gem pulled out some odd substance with a stick of some sort protruding from it with something akin to clear adhesive wrapping of some sort wrapped around the red substance. Peridot quickly veered to the side, her face probably flushed.

"W-what is that?" Peridot stuttered. "Is.. Is it a weapon?" The sentence had nearly ended in a shout as the realization hit her as she shielded her face from any oncoming pain.

The Amethyst only looked from Peridot to the object and back again before she burst out laughing.

"Ha! Good one! I didn't know you were actually funny too! Check this Pearl, she thinks the lollipop is a weapon!" Amethyst turned to the taller gem and laughed. The Pearl only frowned with an uncomfortable expression.

"Erm, uh, yes, it does appear that way." She replied. The purple gem looked back at Peridot and smirked as she threw off the wrapper and popped it right in her audio maker. Peridot shuddered and eyed her wearily as her steps fumbled.

"A 'lollipop'? What is it?" She made no effort to regain the space between them as they kept walking. The Amethyst looked at her in curiosity and surprise before she continued to talk with the odd thing still on her tongue.

"What do you mean? Everyone knows what a lollipop is! Like everyone knows what an ear is! Right?" She giggled a bit at the last part.

Peridot just blankly stared at her.

"I am unfamiliar with your use of vocabulary that I would assume would be accustomed to this planet. I have never heard nor seen any of these odd artifacts you seem to obtain from nowhere. So no," she explained, "I am not aware of what a 'lollipop' or an 'ear' is neither do I know of the purpose of said objects."

The gem's face dropped and shoulders slunk. It was clear she was not expecting that.

"Seriously? Wow, that planet of yours must be real different than Earth!" She exclaimed in wonder.

"Yes, homeworld is not nearly as… backwards." The last part came out in a growl.

"Well, I guess a lollipop is some awesome sweet thing that you eat!" She grinned, giving the 'lollipop' another lick.

"Define 'eat'." Peridot barely repressed a shudder at the other gem's display.

The Amethyst froze before she started laughing again. Her whole body shook and for a moment Peridot wondered if she would choke on the supposed 'sweet' thing in her audio maker.

"Woah, do you guys not eat? Is there no food on homeworld?" Peridot merely gave the Amethyst a weary look, but noticed that the Steven had looked at them as well with a cough.

"What exactly is the point of this 'eating'?" She asked.

The Amethyst shrugged. "It's just for fun, you know? Though humans eat because they have too. If they don't eat, they don't feel full, and they need that to survive. Pretty wonky stuff if you ask me." She chuckled.

"The purpose of this function eludes me," Peridot sighed and shook her head. She looked to the Steven and was surprised to see him staring at her. She looked at him as if he himself had grown a second head.

"What? Oh, what do they call you… the Steven? What is it?" Peridot struggled. The odd name gave her a bit of trouble.

He only blinked as a bit of an embarrassed blush appeared on his cheeks and he turned away as he started coughing for a moment.

"N-nothing. I've just never met a homeworld gem before…"

Pearl crossed her arms. "Don't worry Steven, it won't be for long. We'll make sure we don't run into any more homeworld gems." She said. Peridot scoffed.

"Please, what could a Pearl do anyways? It's not like you can fight or anything," she said. The Pearl's shoulders tensed and she looked away in annoyance.

"Oh don't worry, I can fight alright. A Pearl is just as strong as any other gem."

Peridot only chuckled. "Of course, that's why we see so many of them on the battlefield."

The pale gem was about to reply, but the Garnet interrupted her.

"Look, this is it." She pointed to a cliff, where many of the injectors were still brokenly lying about. Some were rusted over from the years, and others had only pieces still remaining. The Amethyst let out a whoop as she ran over to the side of a cliff where hundreds, maybe thousands of holes littered across the many jagged stretches of earth.

She stopped in front of one hole in particular and posed with her touch sensors out with a proud smile on her face.

"This is it! My hole!"

Peridot only hummed as she inspected the hole. She paced around it, looked into it, and then proceeded to inspect the Amethyst. She stared at the green gem who was poking and prodding at her arms and smiled uncomfortably.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Oh nothing, just inspecting you." She eyed the gem's whole form and then walked away with a small nod. "Fascinating."

"What? Fascinating?" She pointed to herself in confusion.

"It's nothing you probably don't already know yourself. Though I could probably find the prime control room at this point judging from the likely facet this is in…" Peridot said as she looked around with a touch sensor to her face in concentration.

The Steven coughed a little and Pearl smiled. "Really?" She asked. "That's great! Let's go!"

Peridot led the way this time, though she stumbled a bit from the tight restraint of the leash from keeping her from going too fast. She huffed. The green gem looked at the Steven in slight curiosity.

"So, you have humans still surviving with you? How exactly did that work out? Or are 'Stevens'," she put air quotations at the word, "the general population on the planet as of now?"

He shook his head with a frown evident on his face. "No, we have all of Beach City with us. They're all human. Steven is just my name. Plenty of people are still alive," he got quieter at the last part and coughed. Peridot raised a brow at him.

"So what makes you so valuable to the gems?" She asked. He looked to the Pearl and Garnet who gave him a look. He changed his focus back to Peridot and shook his head. The conversation had ended, much to the smaller gem's confusion.

Peridot turned her attention back to the long stretches of rock and dust in front of her and stopped. She gasped a bit and pointed out ahead. "There it is! The entrance!" She called out. The gems all straightened up before they followed the now running gem. The image of Peridot practically dragging Garnet by the leash made the Amethyst snicker a bit.

Peridot tripped over pebble after pebble and rock after rock, but her excitement was just boiling over. Finally, she could see a prime kindergarten room with her own eyes-!

She practically leapt to the dark opening in the ground. Oddly enough, it was open, but Peridot brushed it off as she got ready to jump in. The rest of the gems caught up and the Garnet gave a strong tug to pull the smaller gem back.

"Not so fast!" The taller one said and Peridot grumbled.

The Pearl looked into the passage-way that was right in the ground and gave the group a weary look with her eyebrows furrowed.

"Are you sure about this? Will going down here really help…?" She was suddenly nervous as her touch sensors fiddled around and she bit her lip. The Amethyst strutted up with her eyes closed in mock confidence.

"Please! This place is probably no big deal! Are you scared?" She smirked at her companion who only spluttered with a blush on her cheeks.

"Scared? Of course not! I've been through too many battles here to be scared, Amethyst-"

"Well, we better get a move on then!" The gem jumped up and right into the dark hole, and the Pearl and Garnet shouted out her name.

Peridot repressed a chuckle. "Quite the confident gem you have there. It makes me wonder if she would still be that way if she were on homewooooorld!" She screeched at the end as the others jumped in as well, effectively yanking Peridot uncomfortably with them. The next thing she knew was that they were sliding down a mix of metal and dirt while being surrounded by dark nothingness. Peridot felt herself shiver. Whether it was in anticipation or something else she couldn't tell.

"Wooohooo!" The Amethyst shouted as she slid down and Peridot saw the faintest of smiles on her teammates faces. Odd.

"I'm really starting to think there was a better way to come down here!" She yelled, but was ignored. How polite.

Eventually, the slippery 'hill' ended and Peridot was able to see slightly better than before. A long bridge led them to the main room. They all stumbled around, but the leash made it harder to maneuver through the dark space, along with the ever present fear of tripping and falling to your death. Peridot only spared a quick glance over the edge of the bridge before she squeaked and slunk back near the Steven and Amethyst. Their steps echoed through the space, all merged together creating the most annoying of clacking sounds.

After a moment of silence, the group finally got across the bridge and to the cold tiled room. They stopped and looked around, taking in the advanced looking space with wires spitting out the sides of the walls, no doubt belonging to homeworld. Peridot was just fiddling with the leash and was about to let out a giggle of anticipation when she heard a cry of surprise near her left.

"Steven! Are you alright?" Pearl called out as her footsteps echoed coldly on the metal flooring.

"Y-yeah, I'm ok! But look! It looks like my foot knocked out a part of the wall…" The Steven replied a bik shakily.

"Wait, what's a foot?" Peridot asked as the Garnet tugged her over towards the other gems.

"It's those things you're walking on, nerd!" Amethyst giggled next to her and Peridot nearly jumped out of her skin. "Gah! W-when did you get here?" She stuttered and mentally cursed herself for sounding so shocked. The odd Amethyst only laughed in response which only made the green gem incredibly confused and slightly frustrated. She just balled her fists and sighed in annoyance before focusing back to the others.

The Steven was rubbing his gravity connector with a pained expression, but then her vision spheres widened when she saw a part of the cold metal wall knocked slightly out of place, but still connected. 

"A control panel!" Peridot jogged over, shoved passed the Steven and Pearl and to the small opening past them. She tugged on the leash and after a moment she felt it loosen a bit and she could continue forward.

She heard the Garnet walk behind her. "I assume this is for the lights?"

Peridot nodded. " It should most definitely help restore power to this place." The Garnet nodded in understanding.

She reached out to the panel and grabbed it and tugged on it. Nothing. She gave another tug. Still nothing. Then she outright tried to pull the panel with all of her strength. The small gem let out a few grunts and groans as she tried with all her might, but the troublesome slab of metal wouldn't budge, even as she adjusted her gravity connectors to the wall for support.

Suddenly, the Garnet eased past her and grabbed the panel instead and pulled it right off without hesitation. Peridot stared at her wide eyed and let a "woah," escape her lips.

She shrugged. "You looked like you needed help."

"Yes, well, I should be able to fix this now." The green gem got to her knees and mumbled to herself as she messed around with the wiring. She was careful not to let any sparks touch her skin and she grinned when she finished.

After a moment, the lights flickered on and revealed the room more to them. It was all mostly empty except for an opening at the back of the small room that held a large green gem connected to wires and an object resembling a pedestal in the center of the space. She hummed in wonder and padded over to it, the other gems close behind.

"So, what is it?" The Amethyst asked as they all walked up. Peridot stared at it before she tried to reach to the top of the pedestal, but her decreased height made it a bit… difficult. She groaned again and felt her face flush in embarrassment.

"Well, I can't exactly reach the-" She felt a presence behind her back and was about to turn to see who it was, a high pitched squeal pierced through the space. Peridot jumped and the group of gems spun around in surprise.

Peridot felt her stomach drop and she froze.

Sure, she had never seen one, but now, up close…

Standing, right in the entrance, were three horridly ferocious gem mutants. Each one bigger than the last, with razor teeth and some with vision spheres that stared right through her small form. She let out a squeak.

She really was destined to die on this planet, wasn't she?

….

"Gems, go!" The Garnet shouted and the three immediately summoned their weapons.

"W-wait! What about me?!" Peridot shouted at them, and they paused for a moment. The Garnet looked to the Steven and nodded to him.

"Steven, protect Peridot. Peridot," she put her attention on her. "Get whatever information you can from that platform! Whatever is in this kindergarten must be useful somehow!" She sternly said, and Peridot gulped. Her legs were shaking terribly and her body was flushed with a cold sweat. She couldn't even make any coherent sound.

Before anything else, the Garnet and the others were gone, charging at the three monsters. The Steven looked to Peridot and grabbed her hand. He brought them to the pedestal and lifted her up on his shoulders with a small noise of discomfort from Peridot.

"We have to hurry!" He said and snapped Peridot from her frozen fear. She slowly nodded in understanding. Her touch sensors were shaking as she brought them to the platform. Instantly, it lit up at her touch. The whole room hummed in response and icons and other texts appeared. Peridot was absolutely dumbfounded.

She just activated a kindergarten control room. On her own.

A large bang interrupted her thoughts and she turned her head around to see the commotion. The three corrupted gems from before just finished being poofed by the Crystal Gems, but another look made her notice more corrupted gems filling into the space. How had they gotten here?!

"Leave!" The Amethyst made a war cry as she jumped and spun towards a group of the too-far gems and knocked right into them like a bunch of Pearl leapt and did a front flip as she stabbed one corrupted gem and then fired beams of light at the other, causing them to poof. The Garnet grunted as she punched the ground and it shook, causing vibrations and lights to pop up and hit another group of the enemy.

"Peridot, concentrate!" The Steven warned and Peridot shook her head and turned away from the frightening scene. She focused on the screen in front of her and looked at what was on it.

More crashes and squeals erupted into the room, and Peridot felt herself becoming more and more unsure. Her vision spheres were wide with panic as she searched the database. She was about to try something else when her whole frame froze.

Suddenly, dust gusted into the room and surrounded the area. The gems were all coughing violently, especially the Steven. Peridot would have payed more attention, but all of her focus was on the lights and text around her. She almost stopped breathing.

"Peridot, Steven, we have to go now!" She heard the deep voice of the Garnet somewhere behind her, but she barely paid it any mind.

Time again was slowing down, and she barely noticed as she was brought down. Her legs buckled from under her and she fell to her lower limb connectors. She heard shouting, but was muffled. Slowly, she turned around to come face to face with a gem. Not any of the odd backwards ones. A mutant. It's audio maker was wide open, sharp teeth poking out every which way, slobber and drool dripping from each blade. No vision spheres were visible on the short, brown, pudgy being, but if there were, Peridot knew they would be right on her.

She was barely able to move, her body was frozen in fear at the terrifying creature right in front of her. Then, suddenly, her body was snatched up and her face was buried in the shoulder of the Amethyst, her leash dangling weakly along the ground as she ran.

They were all shouting, but Peridot didn't know of what. She saw the Amethyst give a quick, concerned glance at her, but she shook it off. The backwards gem wouldn't be worried… right?

She sighed and trembled as she tried to force away the terrifying thoughts of what she saw from her mind. She curled into herself slightly and blocked it all out. She blocked out the growling mutants around them. She blocked out the urgent shouts of the gems and human. She blocked out the thumping of the Amethysts steps as they ran. She only buried her face a bit more into the purple gem's shoulder, desperately seeking some form of something. She didn't know what, but she did know that these gems seemed to help give it.

The last thing she saw was a blinding light and a large, bright pink surface shroud over them, designs scrawled around it.

It briefly reminded her of a gem she had heard of once before.


	6. Memory Screw Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot wakes up and faces a bit of a memory problem. Lots of thinking and dumb decisions ensue.

Everything was moving too fast. Everything was blurry, her hearing was muffled, and it seemed as if the whole world was spinning. Peridot groaned as she felt her breathing quicken more and more.

Too fast, too fast, too fast.

 

She heard distant voices, but she didn’t know who they belonged too. All she could focus on was a dull ache in the back of her head. Just what was going on?

 

She felt incredibly dizzy so she had no choice but to close her vision spheres. For a moment, she felt weightless and the pain disappeared for a moment. She felt numbness across her whole body, yet her throat burned. More shouting was heard, and a loud voice practically boomed across wherever they were and silenced everything else.

 

There were small thumps here and there and a mumbled whispering. Small pricks and pokes here and there, but she didn’t try looking to see what was happening in fear of the nausea coming back. Everything was quiet, and she couldn’t feel her body being jostled around like it was before. She felt something hard yet soft under her, and the air helped cool her heated body. 

 

She waited. Nothing.

 

After another moment, she cracked open one vision sphere slowly. No blinding light, good. Then, she opened the other one and cautiously widened them to look around. 

 

A dark brownish-red color high above her. The space was dimly lit and she could hear muffled sounds and whispers. A small noise escaped her throat and she shifted. Under her was hard and flat and she desperately wanted to move from the now slightly uncomfortable surface. She moved her arms under her and slowly tried to push her body up, but more pain in her head suddenly hit her and made her fall right back down.

 

“Ugh,” she groaned. The young gem blinked several times before she stiffened up. A large bang resounded throughout the space, and she heard steps running to her. She turned her head and saw some all too familiar figures.

 

“Peridot!” The Pearl had yelled and she ran along with the Garnet, Amethyst, and Steven to the green gem.

 

Peridot only blankly stared at them as she processed the situation. Then, suddenly, her body shot up- much to her head’s protest- and back away on the odd table-like object she was on.

 

The group caught up to her and they all started asking questions.

 

“Peridot, what happened?”

“Is your head ok?”

“What did you see?”

“Lay back down!”

 

Peridot only shook slightly as she stared at them with confusion and slight panic.

 

“W-what happened?!” She asked, but the group only looked right back with the same amount of confusion. The Pearl only clasped her touch sensors and her voice came out shaky.

 

“At the kindergarten! The gem mutants attacked and-and-”

 

“They hit ya hard on the head! Man, I thought you were gonna poof or something!” The Amethyst said with surprise. Peridot only looked at her curiously before she slowly raised a touch sensor to the back of her head. She jumped when she felt a warm bump there and a wave of dull pain. “Gah!” She winced.

 

The Garnet walked up cautiously and rested her touch sensor on her shoulder. Her face was straight, but Peridot felt an odd sense of worry from the other gem.

 

“Lay back down. You need to rest. You can tell us what happened later.” 

 

“What do you mean…?” Peridot asked.

 

“You were looking at that screen thingy before you suddenly fell over and started having a panic attack or something,” the Amethyst explained. The Steven nodded before he looked at her with interest.

 

“What did you see? Was it something bad?” He asked. The Garnet stopped him and shook her head.

 

“She can tell us later. She needs to focus on feeling better from that hit to the head.”

 

Peridot paused for a moment and struggled to remember what she saw. She thought and thought and groaned slightly from the pain. It was something, something important. Nothing came.

 

Peridot took the chance to look around the room, and finally took a good look at it. It was the same room as before, with the floating bubbles and piles of useless objects, but they were in a larger clearing from all the trash. She was on top of a flat surface with a white cloth of some sort over it. The walls were high and rocky, with small balls of light at the top that casted a dull glow to the room. Along the walls and to the right of her was a long dark tunnel made in the earth that led to large steel doors with pink, purple, and red patterns of vines and flowers twisting around it.

 

She looked back at the other gems and saw that they were staring at her. She sighed.

 

“I- I will be fine. I do not require this ‘rest’ or anything of the sort. It’s just a dull ache, that’s all.” She tried to sound as calm as she could, but she couldn’t stop the small quiver of her lips. The Garnet only shook her head again with a frown.

 

“You were injured when in our supervision, the least we could do is help you feel better.” She said calmly. 

 

“Why would you clods care?” Peridot asked with a bit of frustration. She puffed out her cheeks with a pout on her face in defiance.

 

“We may not seem like we completely care, but we also don’t want any absolute harm to you. You haven’t hurt anyone,” the Pearl said, but then paused. “Yet,” she finished.

 

“You don’t know if I will though! You have no reason to be so lenient!” She knew she should be pleading with them to keep her unbubbled, but their logic made no sense in green gem’s mind. They should be taking this chance to bubble her or s-

 

Nope. Get out of those thoughts right now. She shook her head wildly and slightly blushed at the odd looks from the traitorous gems.

 

“Look,” the Steven spoke up, “we want to be able to have you trust us. We won’t hurt you as long as you don’t hurt us.” Peridot gave him an apprehensive look. She coughed slightly.

 

“While I fail to understand your illogical thinking, I appreciate the sentiment.” She looked away.

 

“Now, we’ll leave you alone for now as long as you promise not to run off or anything. Cause you can’t. Just try to rest on the bed.” Garnet put her touch sensors to her hips with a slight smirk on her face. She turned to the other gems and muttered a quick, “let’s go,” and they turned to leave.

 

The Amethyst looked back at Peridot and grinned. “I really am glad you didn’t die, Peri.” 

 

And with that, they left, leaving Peridot with a loss for words. 

 

What was wrong with these gems?

 

Not a long time had passed, she assumed, as she lay on the ‘bed’ as the Garnet had called it. Eventually, she had managed to grow comfortable, at the very least. She briefly thought of home. How will she even get back? Her ship was likely destroyed, and she had no idea how to send communication to homeworld, especially with those Crystal Gems around. She’ll have to be careful about what she says.

 

Her mind wandered to the kindergarten,despite the headache it gave her. What had happened? What did she see? She remembered the gem experiments somehow coming into the control room, then the Steven had helped her up- curse her inadequate height- and then activating the control panel. There were strings of text, more gem mutants, the gems were shouting to them…

 

She shut her vision spheres and let a low growl escape from her. Her memory was failing her and she couldn’t understand why. Could it have been from the apparent head injury she had sustained? She debated finding a way to make herself poof, but brushed it off immediately. Poofing would be too much of a risk.

 

She sighed after a moment and then reached a touch sensor to her visor, right to where her gem was. She bit her lip and her vision spheres became half lidded. She thought of what homeworld would think, of what she would think. 

 

She snapped out of her thoughts and returned to wondering about the kindergarten. The Amethyst apparently was created there, an interesting fact she had not considered before. The odd gem never learned of proper homeworld- gem- culture. Perhaps once she got off of this garbage planet she could run this bit of information by the Quartz general. A small wave of familiar relief flooded through her at the thought of the gem.

 

A sudden surge of anger coursed through her. She wouldn’t be able to get off this planet however if she gets shattered. Why was getting off so soon so important? Was something going to happen? The young gem sat up and stared at her gravity connectors, the little golden tips of her uniform swaying back and forth, increasing in aggravation.

 

“Gaahh! Why can’t I remember?!” She brought her touch sensor back up and lightly smacked her visor. Stupid gem, just work! she frowned more when nothing came. She sighed in annoyance and stepped off from the ‘bed’ and stood for a moment on the hard, slightly bumpy ground.

 

She started pacing, muttering small words of annoyance, including clod, to herself. She gripped her hair as her panic rose.

 

“Come on, come on, I know it was important. Just remember!” She groaned as the pulsing in the back of her head increased. It hurt, but she had to try and remember what the important bit of information was.

 

Letters, text that said what? Images of artificial and shattered gem pieces. All of the mutant gems littering the area, trying to harm them… were they trying to harm them? She couldn’t even tell now.

 

She stared at the piles of garbage around her and then to the bubbled gems. Her touch sensors fell to her sides. What could she do?

 

She walked up to one of the piles of soft materials of different colors and patterns. She felt the odd material and held onto it. Then she put another touch sensor to it as well. Slowly, she put a gravity connector on as well and started to climb the pile that seemed to go to about five times her size. Maybe she could find something of use, maybe a gem could help her, or-or something. She tried to convince herself that what she was doing wasn’t crazy.

 

She got higher and higher, but found no objects of use as her mind became fuzzy and she felt nervousness prick at her subconscious. This wasn’t crazy, right?

 

Still nothing the higher she got. Her vision kept shifting to the bubbles, but she resisted the urge to mess with one. Who knows why they would be bubbled…

 

She heard loud, hard steps echoing across the room, and she blinked a few times as the luminescent lights from above shined in her vision.

 

Why was there running?

 

“Peridot!” She heard someone cry out, and for a split second, she lost her balance. Her grip loosened and she slipped. She felt her breath leave her and she felt an instant of weightlessness as she fell from what she concluded was about twenty to thirty feet.

 

She heard more shouting and running, but she couldn’t tell if they saw her falling to her possible death. Well, this would certainly stop her worrying.

 

Her gravity connector lightly grazed the pile, but it slightly slowed her down, but it didn’t cushion her fall. She hit the ground with a loud crack and pain erupted in the back of her head and the burn spread to her neck and back. No sound came from her and she desperately wanted, needed, to poof, but her body refused to regenerate. She laid on the ground, trying to ignore the pain, but a loud, guttural cry of pain ripped through her throat. 

 

“Peridot!” She heard it again, but her head couldn’t move. Suddenly, the face of the Amethyst appeared above her, along with the other gems, absolute concern written across their faces. They were speaking to each other, but Peridot’s mind was more focused on something else. Her mind flashed to the kindergarten. The text… the writing… Her vision spheres widened.

 

The gems stopped in their efforts to throw commands to each other and pick the smaller gem up when they saw a wide, face splitting grin stretch across her face. Confusion was evident across their faces as they stared at her.

 

“I know-” she breathed. Then, she froze. Realization dawned on her. Her smile was wiped right from her face and a cold chill ran down her body. Her throat went dry and her stomach dropped in a wave of sickness.

 

“I remember.” Was all she could say as she was picked up by the Garnet. The Pearl looked at her with a brow raised.

 

“Remember what?” She asked.

 

“The information,” she croaked. “ This planet, your earth, us-” she choked out. 

“You will all die.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter is out! Personally, I'm not a big fan of this chapter for some reason, but oh well, what can I do? Looks like Peri finally may have remembered, but what exactly? Tell me your thoughts, and I hope you like it! Thanks! :)

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for it being so short, but don't worry, chapters will get much longer. This is just a prologue, a sort of way to test the waters I guess you could say. Tell me if it sounds interesting so far! And don't worry, everything will be explained in due time. Also, ~~~ represents a flashback! Thanks for reading and please leave a comment! Thanks! :)


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